1. Field of the Invention
The present relates to a color filter array and image receiving method thereof, and more particularly, to a color filter array capable of simultaneously sensing infrared and invisible light and image receiving method thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Image sensor is widely utilized in consumer electronic products, such as scanners, digital cameras, mobile phones and personal digital assistants. The most common types of image sensing device are Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductors (CMOS) and Charge Coupled Device (CCD). Generally, the image sensor requires color filters to sense visible light information of specific colors, such as red, blue and green. However, the color filters cannot filter out infrared and the color of an image would be distorted if the image sensor receives the infrared information. Therefore, a conventional image sensor generally requires an additional infrared cut filter to filter out the infrared and to acquire the accurate color information.
When the image sensor is in an environment with insufficient light, the image sensor equipped the infrared cut filter may not acquire clear images. In order to capture the clearer images, the image sensor needs to temporally remove (e.g. move away) the infrared cut filter and turn on an infrared light source (e.g. an infrared light-emitting diode (LED)), to increase the intensity of the signals sensed by the image sensor. In such a condition, the color information of the image received by the image sensor would be distorted. In other words, the image sensor utilizes the infrared cut filter to acquire the correct color information when the intensity of the environment light is sufficient; and removes the infrared cut filter for acquiring the clear images when the environment light is insufficient. As can be seen from the above, the conventional image sensor requires the infrared cut filter and the components for moving the infrared cut filter, which results in that the manufacture cost of the image sensor increases. Thus, how to take the image quality and the color information into account without increasing the manufacture cost becomes a topic to be discussed in the industry.